In partnership with North Sutherland Community Forest Trust and Species on the Edge, the group, led by committee member Hilary Wilson and Storyteller Alex Patience, celebrated the Spring equinox at the Spiral wood in Borgie Breco forest.
In search of the signs of Spring, we began at the stand of now mature birch trees near the entrance to the Spiral wood. After listening with our ears against the trunks to see if we could hear the sap rising, we chose our favourite birch tree and gave our reasons for the choice. The reasons were many, ranging from, “being covered in lichens”, “having lots of fissures”, “two trunks”, “it’s the biggest”, “it’s very mossy”.
The primroses weren’t quite flowering yet, although we did see plenty of leaves pushing through the undergrowth, getting ready to flower before the main, leafy, tree canopy, covers the forest floor in shade. Sarah Bird (left) from Species on the Edge was at hand with some flowering in a pot. Sarah also talked about the related, much rarer, Scottish primrose (Primula scotica) a key species for the Species on the Edge project. Later in the afternoon we would make our own Scottish primrose flowers.
Hilary singing a lovely song about the willow tree. Alex also told a folktale about a donkey that was unfortunately cut in half, but thankfully stitched back together using willow withies (phew!)
The arrival of cuckoos is a sign of spring familiar to us all. Once we were at the centre of the spiral wood, using withies and birch rounds, we made a willow crook and hung cuckoo eyes drawn on the rounds to celebrate their imminent return.
We learned a song in Gaelic about the cuckoo returning and a wee song from Ghana to mark the cuckoos flying over west Africa on their way back to Scotland for the summer.
Cuckoos are important in Gaelic language and folklore with many sayings including:
‘Bròg na cuthaige’ – means the ‘cuckoo’s shoe’ and is the Gaelic name for bluebells which appear at around the same time as the cuckoo’s return.
In Gaelic culture it was considered unlucky for folks to hear the cuckoo before they had eaten in the morning giving rise to the ‘grèim-cuthaige‘ – a quick snack to be kept under the pillow and eaten on waking up. And the meadow pipit – being the most common bird for cuckoos to lay their eggs, has the Gaelic name ‘gocan-cuthaige’, meaning ‘cuckoo’s attendant’.
The children also hunted for Scottish primrose petals so that they could make their own flower. Some special petals spelt out the Gaelic for cuckoo ‘Cuthag’.
Scottish primrose flowers are just a wee bit smaller than these!
The children were very well behaved….the adults however!
Having managed to dodge all the showers, we retired to the Borgie cabin for a warm-up by the log fire, a much need cuppa and Hilary’s lovely scones and flapjack.
We’ll be back for the summer solstice!
Event date: 23rd March 2024.
Stephen Kirkup.
